I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, and maybe I’m not alone on this one.
It’s been difficult to get myself motivated to look into politics lately, although I certainly keep tabs on things. The reason is that I, and I’d say most progressives, are feeling a rather horrifying sense of impotency as the new year rolls around.
During the Bush era, there was a fight to be had. With the GOP controlling all three branches of government, when things were going poorly we could say that the answer lied in voting the bastards out. Get us some better politicians and things will move in the right direction.
So we worked. We blogged, we wrote, we called, we canvassed, we donated. From the 2006 midterms to the 2008 election, there was one thought in mind: end the reign of Bush-style politics. Sure we had Congress, but with a president able to veto anything he wanted or make executive orders and signing statements to go around it, what power did we really have?
Enter the 2008 takeover. Did that herald in a new era of politics? A bright, shiny new day in which progressive ideals would finally get their day? Hardly.
Thus we’re left in an odd position. With no election for another two and a half years, we’ve got no actual power beyond making angry phone calls which are likely to get ignored in the face of lobbyist donations. Worse still, when the people we’re angry at are the ones we spent time, money, and effort to get into office, what could we even do come the elections next year? Put all of our effort into the primaries?
Maybe it’s the weather, but I’m struck with a profound sense of futility. The Democrats are obviously not going to fight for what I wanted them to fight for, and there isn’t another party with any real chance that I could justify putting myself behind. I could turn Hitchens or Carlin and simply remove myself from the political arena and rather comment on it all as an outsider, but I’m not so jaded as to think the system can never change.
I don’t know. It’s possible that ten days of grey skies with no sun have made my mood drop.
